1 online resource (469 pages)

"What sets the practice of rigorously tested, sound science apart from pseudoscience? In this volume, the contributors seek to answer this question, known to philosophers of science as 'the demarcation problem.' This issue has a long history in philosophy, stretching as far back as the early twentieth century and the work of Karl Popper. But by the late 1980s, scholars in the field began to treat the demarcation problem as impossible to solve and futile to ponder. However, the essays that Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry have assembled in this volume make a rousing case for the unequivocal importance of reflecting on the separation between pseudoscience and sound science. Moreover, the demarcation problem is not a purely theoretical dilemma of mere academic interest: it affects parents' decisions to vaccinate children and governments' willingness to adopt policies that prevent climate change. Pseudoscience often mimics science, using the superficial language and trappings of actual scientific research to seem more respectable. Even a well-informed public can be taken in by such questionable theories dressed up as science. Pseudoscientific beliefs compete with sound science on the health pages of newspapers for media coverage and in laboratories for research funding. Now more than ever the ability to separate genuine scientific findings from spurious ones is vital, and The Philosophy of Pseudoscience provides ground for philosophers, sociologists, historians, and laypeople to make decisions about what science is or isn't"--Provided by publisher

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction: why the demarcation problem matters / Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry -- What's the problem with the demarcation problem? The demarcation problem: a (belated) response to Laudan / Massimo Pigliucci -- Science and pseudoscience: how to demarcate after the (alleged) demise of the demarcation problem? / Martin Mahner -- Toward a demarcation of science from pseudoscience / James Ladyman -- Defining pseudoscience and science / Sven Ove Hansson -- Loki's wager and Laudan's error: on genuine and territorial demarcation / Maarten Boudry -- History and sociology of pseudoscience. The problem of demarcation: history and future / Thomas Nickles -- Science, pseudoscience, and science falsely so-called / Daniel P. Thurs and Ronald L. Numbers -- Paranormalism and pseudoscience as deviance / Erich Goode -- Belief buddies versus critical communities: the social organization of pseudoscience / Noretta Koertge -- The borderlands between science and pseudoscience. Science and the messy, uncontrollable world of nature / Carol E. Cleland and Sheralee Brindell -- Science and pseudoscience: the difference in practice and the difference it makes / Michael Shermer -- Evolution: from pseudoscience to popular science, from popular science to professional science / Michael Ruse -- Science and the supernatural. Is a science of the supernatural possible? / Evan Fales -- Navigating the landscape between science and religious pseudoscience: can Hume help? / Barbara Forrest -- True believers and their tactics. Argumentation and pseudoscience: the case for an ethics of argumentation / Jean Paul van Bendegem -- Why alternative medicine can be scientifically evaluated: countering the evasions of pseudoscience / Jesper Jerkert -- Pseudoscience: the case of Freud's sexual etiology of the neuroses / Frank Cioffi -- The Holocaust denier's playbook and the tobacco smokescreen: common threads in the thinking and tactics of denialists and pseudoscientists / Donald Prothero -- The cognitive roots of pseudoscience. Evolved to be irrational?: evolutionary and cognitive foundations of pseudosciences / Stefaan Blancke and Johan de Smedt -- Werewolves in scientists' clothing: understanding pseudoscientific cognition / Konrad Talmont-Kaminski -- The Salem region: two mindsets about science / John S. Wilkins -- Pseudoscience and idiosyncratic theories of rational belief / Nicholas Shackel -- Agentive thinking and illusions of understanding / Filip Buekens

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